Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Sermon on the Mount III

View from the site of the Sermon on the Mount

It’s been a
little while since we left off our discussion of the Sermon on the Mount, the
most important sermon in Jesus’ ministry.
So I thought today would be a good day to get back to it and continue to
talk about these teachings which are right at the core of Jesus’ instructions
for our lives today.

We left off
last time with talking about the “Lord’s Prayer,” or what we should really call
the “Disciples’ Prayer” since Jesus gave it to us to pray. It’s such a handy prayer because it helps us
focus our minds and our thoughts on the most important things in our spiritual
lives.

It begins with the Father God, because
he should be the focus not only of our prayer lives but of our entire lives: “Our
Father who is in the heavens” (Matt. 6:9).

Next is sanctifying
the name of God: “May your name be made holy” (Matt. 6:9). What does it mean to make God’s name holy, to
sanctify God’s name? To make something
holy, to sanctify it, means to set it apart or to lift it up as sacred, so it will
be revered and respected. We sanctify
God’s name (we set it apart from every other name) when we do something godly in
the name of our God, when we give people a reason to see that God is holy. When Christians help people after a disaster
or tragedy, it sanctifies God’s name.
When we show care and concern for people who are hurting and broken in
God’s name, it sanctifies God’s name.
Whenever we unselfishly do good deeds as Christians, it sanctifies the
Name of God. May God help us sanctify
his name more and more every day, and may he himself sanctify his name every
day in our world, so that more and more people will come to love and honor our
God. And may we be careful never to do
anything that will bring dishonor to our God.

The
Disciples’ Prayer also reminds us to focus on God’s coming kingdom, to prepare
the way of the Lord: “Your kingdom come, your will be done; as in
heaven, also on earth” (Matt. 6:10).
How do we do that? How do we help
God’s kingdom to come on earth? By
preaching the gospel with our words and also with our actions. To advance the kingdom, God’s kingdom must come
first in our own hearts and lives. God’s
will must be done right here in our own lives.
And then, when we ourselves are walking in obedience to God, when we are
submitted to him as king, then we’re in a position to bring others into the
kingdom, and even bring groups of people to God. What an honor and a privilege it is to lead
people into the kingdom! That’s what we
can do right now to advance God’s kingdom.

But in the
future, there will be another stage in the coming of the kingdom, when Jesus
returns to claim his crown and to rule on this earth. We are also praying for that to take
place. That is the goal that we look
forward to as Christians, a goal beyond this life, a goal even beyond death for
many of us: to rule and reign on this
earth with Jesus, in a beautiful kingdom of righteousness and peace that will
last for hundreds of years. That’s the
kingdom we want to come.

And even beyond
that, we’re looking to God’s eternal kingdom in a new heavens and a new earth
where righteousness dwells. You know, it
solves a lot of problems in life if we keep our goal firmly before our
eyes. If you know where you’re going, it
helps you sort out how to live your life right now. Amen?

Then, only
after all these things: after starting
with a focus on God the Father, then praying for the sanctifying of God’s Name,
and then praying for the coming of God’s kingdom— only then does the prayer turn
to our personal needs: “Give us today the amount of bread we need”
(Matt. 6:11). For many of us, this is how
we start our prayers, with our personal needs, and this is the part of our
prayers that gets the most attention.
That’s what we’re often the most enthusiastic about lifting up to
God: a list of all the things we
need.

Now I’m not saying that it’s wrong
to pray about these things. I’m not
saying that we should ignore our needs when we’re praying. Jesus said that we should bring these
things before the Father in prayer. But
you know, honestly, that can get kind of boring after a while, especially if
that’s all we ever pray about. Maybe if
we focused more on the majesty of the Father God, on his holiness and on his
kingdom, on the great things he is doing and is about to do, maybe that would make
praying more exciting. Now I know I’m
just as guilty as anyone of praying too much for my own needs. But Jesus wants us to expand our prayer
lives. He wants us to come into the presence
of the Father first and remind ourselves of his glorious nature and his
wonderful plan for our lives. And then
we can talk about our needs.

Next, the
focus is on forgiveness for what we have done wrong: “Forgive
us what we owe (because of sin), as we too have forgiven those that owe us
(because of sin)” (Matt. 6:12). This
asking for forgiveness is very important.
Because as Jesus warns us just after this prayer, if we don’t forgive
others, God will not forgive us (Matt. 6:14,15). This means we have to forgive everyone,
including those who do terrible things to us.
This doesn’t necessarily free them from the consequences of what they
have done. Vengeance is the Lord’s and
he will repay. God is going to deal
justly and fairly with sin, especially if they don’t repent of their sin. But we need to forgive them anyway to free ourselves
from the hurt and the bitterness that the memory of that sin brings into our
lives. The pain of that hurt will just
keep on hurting us until we forgive the person that did it. Only then can we get free of that hurt. But we also need to forgive so there will not
be any obstacle that might keep them from coming to Jesus, repenting, and being
forgiven. When we forgive sin that has
taken place against us, we show the world what Jesus is like: that the reason he came was to forgive sin,
and he will forgive those who come to him in repentance.

Then the
last part of the prayer focuses on avoiding the temptations of wickedness. “And do
not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from evil (or from the evil one)”
(Matt. 6:13). It’s important for us to
remember that there is wickedness and evil in this world: real evil, that affects every one of us every
day. There’s a constant spiritual battle
going on for our souls and for the souls of others. It can be very tempting to forget about that
battle: and in fact, it’s much more
pleasant to pretend that there isn’t a battle going on. Battles are not pleasant. But if we forget the war that’s going on, if
we forget to resist evil, then evil will gain a victory over us, and we will be
defeated. So it’s important for us to
remember the battle and ask God to give us victory.

But look at
that first part again: “Do not bring us into temptation.” Does God actually bring people into
temptation? Another way to translate
this is, “Do not bring us into testing.” We know that God did test people in
the Bible: God tested Abraham (Gen.
22:1), he tested the children of Israel in the desert (Ex. 15:25, 16:4, etc.). The book of Proverbs says that “the LORD tests hearts” (Pro.
17:3). So God does test people. But Jesus says that we should pray not to be
tested. How can we avoiding testing?

James says
that the reason something is a test or a temptation in our lives is because of
our sinful desires (“But each is tempted
by his own desire when he is drawn away and enticed,” James 1:14). If we can eliminate those sinful desires,
those things will not be a temptation to us.
So when we pray to God not to bring us into temptation, and to deliver
us from evil, one of the things we’re praying for God to do is to strengthen us
in our hearts so we can resist evil desires.

Each of the
parts of the Disciple’s Prayer are so important that we should never let them
drop out of our prayer life. We need all
of them to have a healthy and balanced prayer life. So let’s quickly review them all again:

Focus on
Father God

Focus on
sanctifying his Name

Focus on his
kingdom

Focus on our
daily needs

Focus on
forgiving

Focus on
avoiding evil

In the next
part of the sermon, Jesus talks about fasting.
“And whenever you fast...”
(Matt. 6:16). Fasting (which means not
eating or drinking) was a regular part of people’s religious lives at the time. The custom for the Jewish people in Jesus’
day was to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.
Do you remember when the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable said, “I fast twice a week” (Luke 18:12)? The early Christians fasted on Wednesdays and
Fridays. There were also special fasting
days every year like Yom Kippur (the
Day of Atonement), or to remember terrible events in the past like the
destruction of the Temple. But there
were also many other reasons why people fasted:
the whole community might fast and pray if there was the threat of war
or a need for rain; individuals might fast and pray for someone to be healed, or
to mourn someone’s death, to repent for sin, or for many other reasons.

In the New
Testament, Jesus himself fasted for forty days at the beginning of his ministry
(Matt. 4:2). But then, during his
ministry, he didn’t tell his followers to do any extra fasting. This was a puzzle to people, because even
John the Baptist taught his disciples to fast.
So the disciples of John asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
(Matt. 9:14). So Jesus told them a
parable about a bridegroom and his friends to explain that while he was with
them, his disciples didn’t need to do any extra fasting. But when he was taken away from them, he
said, then they would fast (“And Jesus
said to them, ‘Can the sons of the bridal chamber mourn while the bridegroom is
with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from
them, and then they will fast,” Matt. 9:15).

And this is just
what happened. In the book of Acts, the
disciples fasted and prayed to seek direction from the Lord, and before
anointing people for leadership (Acts 13:2, 14:23). It seems they also sometimes fasted and
prayed when they were praying for people to be healed. And since Paul still calls the Day of
Atonement “the Fast” (Acts 27:9), it
seems quite clear that they continued the traditional times of community
fasting. So for the early Christians,
just like the Jewish people, this was just a normal part of their religious
lives.

When Jesus spoke
about fasting, he didn’t tell us when we should fast, he just assumed that
we were going to do it from time to time.
His concern was that when we do fast, it should be
something private between us and God.
Fasting is not something that we should be proud of and show off to
others: “oh look how spiritual I am, I’m
fasting.” No, to do that was to miss the
whole point (“And whenever you fast, do
not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their
appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have
their reward in full,” Matt. 6:16).

Instead you
should keep the fact that you’re fasting a secret, in fact you should hide the
fact that you’re fasting. Only this kind
of secret fasting, Jesus says, will get a reward from the Father (“But you, when you fast, anoint your head,
and wash your face 18 so that you may not be seen fasting by men,
but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will
repay you,” Matt. 6:17-18). Here
Jesus clearly teaches that there is a reward for fasting if you do it
the right way. It is a good thing to do
from time to time. But you must be sure
to do it the right way.

After that, Jesus
began to talk about money issues. I
think that most of us need help in the area of finances. But unfortunately, there are so many voices
saying so many things on this topic today that it can be very confusing. We’ve mentioned several times the prosperity
gospel that has distorted this topic beyond recognition. But Jesus was very consistent and very clear
when it comes to money.

Matt.
6:19: “Do not store up (or save up) for yourselves treasures on the earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”

That’s a
pretty clear statement. Our goal in life
is not supposed to be gathering earthly wealth.
The word for treasure here can mean a treasure chest or a storeroom, or
the treasure itself that you would store in a place like that. In other words, this is talking about the
accumulation of wealth beyond our basic, everyday needs. That is not the kind of treasure we should be
trying to accumulate.

Matt.
6:20: “But store up (or save up) for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

We’re
supposed to store up our treasure in heaven, where we can get an eternal
benefit from it—not here on earth where it can so easily be stolen or
destroyed. The main difference between
Jesus’ day and our day is that the list of ways that your treasure can be
stolen has gotten a lot longer. Today
we’ve got to worry about hackers in some other part of the world draining our
bank accounts. Or inflation making our
money worthless (although that was also happening in Jesus day, though more
slowly than today). It might be your
pension fund going broke or being scrapped by your company, a stock market
crash, or any one of dozens of other ways that you can lose everything you’ve
saved up in a moment’s time. What a
terrible thing to see your life savings disappear before your eyes.

All of this
means, of course, that investing in this worldly system is not a good
investment. It’s much better, Jesus
says, to make an eternal investment, an investment in heaven. How do we do that? By using our money to advance God’s kingdom. When we give to help ministries, when we give
to help people in need, we’re storing up treasure for ourselves in heaven.

Even using
our money to advance ourselves in the kingdom of heaven, like attending
Christian seminars or buying Christian books and videos, or even going on a
tour of Israel, these, too, can be an investment in God’s eternal kingdom. There are many, many different ways that we
can invest in the kingdom of heaven. And
that’s what Jesus says we should do: not
just piling up wealth on earth for someone to waste after we die. Sorry to say, that’s what usually happens to
large inheritances, just like with those who win the lottery. Pouff!
The money is gone. And then what
good was all that scraping to save? How
much better to use our wealth for eternal things, things that can bring an
eternal reward.

You can tell
what’s in someone’s heart by the way they spend their money. If their money goes to earthly things, that’s
what’s important to them. If they spend
their money on heavenly things, that’s what’s important to them. What could someone tell about your life by
the way you spend your money? Where does
the evidence say that your heart is located?
Or as somebody put it one time, if you were accused of being a
Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Could anyone tell you were a Christian by
looking at your financial records?

Jesus
continues talking on this topic in the next couple of verses, but many of us
would never know it because of the expressions he uses, which are not familiar
to most of us:

Matt.
6:22: “The eye is the lamp of the body; if then your eye is single, your
whole body will be full of light.”

Does that
sound like he’s talking about money to you?
These are not expressions we use today.
So what’s the meaning? Prov.
22:9: can help us understand: “He who
is good of eye is blessed, for he has given from his bread to the poor.” Here we can see that this expression “good of eye” (tov-ayin) means someone who is generous. It seems to come from the experience of
someone who is in need asking for help.
If you ask someone for help, and the look they give you is a good one,
in other words a friendly, helpful look, this usually means that they’re
willing to help you. But if they give
you a bad look, if they make an uncomfortable expression with their eyes, they’re
probably not going to help you. So
someone who has a good eye is a generous person.

That’s in
Hebrew. In Greek this comes across
instead of a “good eye” as a “single eye” (a-plous’). This is similar
to our expression “single-minded.” A
single-minded person is focused on a single goal, he doesn’t allow all kinds of
other things to distract him from his goal.
In the same way, someone with a single eye is straight-forward, honest
and sincere. And this shows itself especially in how he
treats those in need. So in the Greek idiom
of the day, a person with a single eye was a generous person.

In Jesus’
teaching, he calls the eye “the lamp of
the body.” This is the idea that the
eye takes light from the environment around us and shines it into our
bodies. And this is certainly true in
the sense that the eye gathers light from outside of our bodies and “shines”
that light into us in the form of images that we receive and process in our
minds. So in this sense the eye is a
gateway to the outside world, particularly with regard to light: it lets in light. If your eye is single, that is, if it’s
focused straight ahead, or we could say if it’s unobstructed, it will let in
lots of light. So what Jesus is saying
is that a generous person, a person with a good eye, is a person that lets in
lots of light, and is filled with light.
This is a symbol of being filled with the light of God.

Matt.
6:23: “But if your eye is evil (or bad), your whole body will be dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness,
how great is the darkness!”

Here we have
another expression that’s not so familiar to us today. But the “evil eye” is a very well-known
expression in the Middle East. In fact,
there’s even a little talisman (the hamsa)
that you will see everywhere that is intended to avert the evil eye. What is this all about? In Middle Eastern culture, an evil eye is an
eye that is envious and greedy or stingy.
The person with an evil eye wants what you have and doesn’t want to give
you anything back in return. In fact,
many believe that if someone gives you the evil eye, it brings a curse, and
will bring something bad into your life.
Because of this, in Muslim society, people avoid directly accepting a
compliment, in order to avoid the evil eye (they say instead “God has willed it,”
Masha’Allah).

So what is
Jesus talking about? He’s playing on the
double meaning of “evil eye.” It could
just mean an eye that’s not working very well, as we would say, a “bad eye,”
which means it doesn’t let in as much light as it should. But if we add the other meaning of “evil
eye,” it means that a person who is not generous is not filled with the light
of God, but instead is filled with darkness.
And if the only light you get from your eye is darkness, how terrible is
that inner darkness! How terrible to live
a life filled with darkness and removed from the light and the love of
God! This is a very strong statement by
Jesus in favor of generosity and against selfishness and enviousness and greed.

Rabbi
Joshua, who taught just after the time of the New Testament said, “The evil eye
and an evil nature and hatred of mankind put a man out of the world” (Mishnah
Aboth 2:11). This, too, is a very strong
statement against selfishness and greed.
Having an evil eye puts you outside of human society. Another saying from the early rabbis is
this: “A good eye and a humble spirit
and a lowly soul—those who have these are of the disciples of Abraham our
father. An evil eye, a haughty spirit,
and a proud soul—those who have these are of the disciples of Balaam the wicked”
(Aboth 5:19).

Jesus’
teaching is very similar to these in many ways.
But he draws out the difference in a way that highlights our inner
spiritual life. Having a good eye, being
generous, fills you with the light of God; it puts you in touch with God
himself. Having an evil eye, being
greedy, fills you with darkness, which points toward an eternal darkness away
from God. The implication of his imagery
of light and darkness, good and evil, is that being generous or not is not just
a better or worse way to live, but has spiritual consequences, eternal
consequences.

If you think
that’s reading too much into Jesus’ words, just look at how he summarizes these
words in verse 24:

Matt.
6:24: “No one is able to serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Instead of
light and dark, good and evil, now we have God and mammon. What is mammon? It’s just the Aramaic word for wealth. This word was commonly used by the rabbis and
others in their discussions of money and property. For example, Rabbi Jose said: “Let the mammon of your fellow be as dear to
you as your own” (Aboth 2:12). This
means that you should value the wealth and property of your neighbor just as
highly as you value your own belongings.
If everyone had this attitude, no one would ever steal from each other
or cheat each other when it comes to finances.

When Jesus
mentions mammon, he’s continuing his discussion of two alternatives with regard
to money: before he was talking about the
good eye and the evil eye, now he’s talking about God and mammon. What does this mean? That the one who has a good eye is serving
God, and the one who has an evil eye is serving mammon. What does it mean to serve mammon? The word “serve” in the Biblical languages also
means to “worship.” So while the person
with a good eye is serving and worshipping God, the person with an evil eye is serving
and worshipping wealth and the things of this earth.

And Jesus
says you can’t have it both ways. You
can’t serve two lords. You’re going to
end up loving one and hating the other. That’s
just the way it is; that’s the way it works.
This is the danger of the prosperity gospel. It teaches that you can love God and
money: that you can have your cake and
eat it, too. But Jesus says, no, you’re
going to have to choose. And if you
choose wealth, you will end up, finally, hating God.

So then, how
should we live?

Matt.
6:25: “Because of this I say to you, don’t be anxious about your life, what
you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, what you will put
on. Isn’t life more than food and the
body more than clothing?”

Here Jesus
explains that worry is the source of the problem. Being anxious about the things of this life
is what leads to greed and selfishness and envy. But the solution to the problem is to trust
God, and realize that there’s more to life than food and clothing.

Matt.
6:26: “Look at the birds of the heaven, that do not sow or reap or gather
into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not worth more than them?”

If God takes
care of the birds, you think he won’t take care of you? Now please notice that Jesus is not saying
that you can just sit around and do nothing and all your needs will be taken
care of. His comparison is to
birds. And if you’ve ever looked at
birds, you notice that they are constantly hopping around looking for
food. They’re quite busy. They’re always doing what they can to find
food, looking in every little corner. They’re
busy creatures. But the point is that
God has already provided all they need in the environment around them. They just have to go out and get it. It’s the same in our lives. We need, of course, like the birds, to
continually go about and do the things that we need to do to find the things we
need. But God has already provided
everything we need in abundance. It’s
available to us. We don’t have to worry
about it. We don’t have to become greedy
and envious and selfish. There’s more
than enough for everyone. How many meals
in a day can you eat? How many things
can you wear at one time?

Matt.
6:27: “But who of you by being anxious is able to add one cubit to his age?”

This is a
god-joke. You can’t add a cubit, which
is a measure of distance, to your age, which is a measure of time. In the same way, being anxious doesn’t
contribute anything to your life. It’s
not the right kind of thing to be helpful.
Being anxious helps you in your life just as much as a yardstick will
help you measure your age: in other
words, it doesn’t help at all. God knows
what we need, and he will provide it for us.

Matt. 6:33: “But
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be provided for you.”

This is what’s
more important in life: seeking God’s
kingdom. Remember what we saw in the Disciple’s
Prayer? “Your kingdom come, your will be done; as in heaven, also on earth.” First we seek God’s kingdom right here in our
own hearts and lives. First we seek for ourselves
to be righteous. Then we seek to spread
that kingdom and that righteousness around to others. If that’s our first priority, before mammon,
before earthly treasures, if that’s what we’re seeking in life, God is going to
take care of the rest. That doesn’t mean
we do nothing. No, we seek God’s
kingdom, we seek his righteousness.
That means that we’re busy with the work of the kingdom. We’re busy making ourselves more godly. We’re busy helping others come to God. We’re a busy people. But we’re not worried. Because we know and trust that God will
provide for us.

Matt.
6:34: “Therefore don’t be anxious for the next day, for the next day will be
anxious for itself. Sufficient for the
day is its trouble.”

Jesus is not
painting an unrealistically rosy picture of life. Each day, he says, has its own troubles, each
day has its own difficulties. You can’t
get out of those and still be living in this life. But, he says, just take it one day at a time. And did you notice the god-joke? “The
next day will be anxious for itself.” Let tomorrow worry about itself. There’s no need for you to worry along with
it. Amen?

So many
people let their worry about the things of the world stop them from serving
God. I’ve got to have this and I’ve got
to have that, so I’ve got to work extra hours at work, and pretty soon there’s
no time left for the things of God, no time left for the greater things in life,
no time left for seeking the kingdom of God.
And then they die, and they leave all that mountain of stuff they’ve
accumulated for somebody else to clean up.
Because it surely won’t go with them.
It all just stays right here.
Worldly wealth has a very limited shelf life. But if our treasure is in heaven, it will never
pass away, and will keep on generating dividends for eternity.

What about
you? Are you seeking the kingdom? Are you building yourself up in the
faith? Are you generous with your time
and your resources to those in need around you?
Are you free from worry about life?

Let’s finish
up with a quick summary of this part of Jesus’ message:

1) Don’t store up
treasures on earth, but store them in heaven—use them to serve God.

2) Generosity will
fill your life with the light of God, while a lack of generosity cuts you off
from God’s light, and plunges you into darkness.

3) You cannot serve
both God and wealth: you will end up loving
one and hating the other. So choose wisely.

4) Don’t be anxious,
because it won’t help you at all. Worry
is not a useful thing. Trust God
instead.

5) Seek God’s kingdom
first before anything else in your life, and he’ll take care of your daily
needs.

Amen?

Let’s
pray: Father God in heaven, we glorify
your name today. You are the holy one,
you are the mighty one, you are worthy of praise. May your name be lifted up all over the world
as holy and righteous and true. And may
we lift up your name as holy by everything we say and do. May your kingdom come, may your will be done
in our lives immediately: just like it
is in heaven. And we pray that your
kingdom will come into the lives of many people today, that they will come to
know that you are the true God. And may
your reign soon descend upon all the earth and Jesus come back to us
again.

Father God,
we lift up our own individual needs to you today. You know what they are. Please meet those needs so we can be free to
serve you. And help us to be a forgiving
people, both of those who repent of what they have done to us, and those who
don’t. We forgive them Lord, and pray
for them to come to know you more.
Please forgive us, too, Lord, for the things that we have done
wrong. And help us to avoid doing wrong
in the future. Help us grow stronger in
our faith so we can avoid temptation and have victory over evil. And we give you all the praise and the
glory. In Jesus’ name.

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About New Church

Join us at New Church in Taichung, Taiwan! The messages posted here are the Sunday messages shared with the church by Pastor Jeff Harrison. For more information about the church, click on the Church Info or Facebook Group links under the photo at the top of this page. For more information about Jeff, check out the link to his ministry website (To The Ends).